


The Apollo Effect

by Silverkleptofox



Category: Percy Jackson and related fandoms
Genre: Caring, Fluff, M/M, Nico is a Dork, Will chews out the god of the underworld himself, solangelo, vaccination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 06:27:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6969850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverkleptofox/pseuds/Silverkleptofox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico's missed out on a lot since the 1930's...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Apollo Effect

Will and Nico were in the middle of eating lunch at the Apollo table when it happened. They were joking over their food when Austin mentioned that he was traveling to the Bahamas with his mom over the summer. Will had reminded him through his mouthful of sandwich to get his immunizations up to date before he left.

"Yeah yeah, I know, Mr. Head-of-the-infirmary, I got it." Austin waved him off.

"You know dad will get personally offended if you get sick." Kayla elbowed him. 

Will swallowed his food. "Just make sure you get it done, Austin."

That's when Nico had spoken up. "Get what done?" 

"Get his shots before he leaves." Will replied simply.

Nico looked confused. "Why would you want to shoot Austin before he leaves?" 

Will looked at Nico, dumbfounded. Was he trying to make a joke? When Nico's expression didn't change, Will realized what was going on. He nearly dropped his sandwich. 

"Nico, what year were you born again?"

"Nineteen-Thirty" Nico mumbled quietly.

"And you were ten when you went to military school?"

"...yeah?" 

Will shuffled his fingers, doing some quick calculations before casting his eyes to Nico. "You... You've never been vaccinated, have you?" Will asked tersely.

"Vax in ate it?" Nico raised an eyebrow. "What did Vax eat?" 

Will flopped his curly mop of hair into his arms and muffled an irritated scream. "I cannot BELIEVE this." He shouted into his arms. "Oh my gods. You could've caught rubella! Well maybe not because of crowd immunity but still! I'm ordering a full set of immunizations and you're not leaving camp until they're complete." He pointed at Nico. "You. Infirmary. Now." 

"What the Hades?" Nico complained as Will grabbed his hand and led him out of the dining hall. "Will I'm fine, why are we going to the infirmary?" 

"I cannot believe no one had you vaccinated. You could've died of measles by now! Especially with how often Lord Hades sends you to the four corners of the earth to do his bidding, have you ever been immunized against anything, ever?! Oh gods, who knows what sort of ancient strains of bacteria are on those skeletons you summon. No wonder you're lethargic all the time, you're probably fighting of a hundred different strains of..."

Nico dug in his heels and brought his rampaging boyfriend to a halt. "Will, I really don't understand what you're talking about. I don't understand what half of those words mean." 

Will's eyes widened. Of course Nico wouldn't understand- he had no memory of anything beyond the last five years of his life, and he hadn't exactly been to school during that time. If it wasn't common sense or something he could pick up on the street, Nico probably didn't know about it. 

"I'm sorry..." Will huffed "... I'm not angry at you and you haven't done anything wrong, but your guardians have been lax in your care. I'll explain everything once we get to the infirmary."

Nico shrugged and set off toward the Big House.

\---------

"So basically, it's a tiny amount of the disease that's already dead. That way your antibodies - the white blood cells- can react to the disease and build up defenses against it. If you ever encounter the actual pathogens- uh... Disease germs- you'll already have defenses in place to deal with it, and won't get infected." Will said as he rifled through a storage cabinet. 

Nico's brow furrowed. "Huh...so that's why the Apollo card had that effect..."

"Hmmm?" Will asked with a smirk.

"In Mythomagic. The Apollo card had an 'immunization' effect where the user could pick an enchantment card in the graveyard and the opponent could not use any copies of that card. It was really effective against....Hecate....please pretend I didnt say that" Nico muttered trying to hide his blush. He didn't often geek out anymore and Will smiled to see this rare side of him.

"Pretty much exactly like that, except instead of magic cards, your body is protected against actual deadly diseases." 

Nico nodded. It made sense, logically. "So what are you looking for?" 

Will sat down on one of the stools next to the cabinet. "I was looking to see if we had any MMR or polio vaccines, because those are the most important, but no luck. We'll just have to wait until they get here."

"And how long will that take?"

"Probably a week or so..."

"Will, I have to go to South America in two days..."

"You're not going." Will interrupted.

"... But my dad...!"

"Can talk to me." Will stated firmly. "You're not leaving camp without a full set of basic immunizations, and you're certainly lot traveling to South America without the necessary shots for the diseases there. Gods Nico..." Will slumped and carded his hands through his hair. "It's not your fault, I want you to know that. You're not to blame for this at all. But your immune system is from the thirties. Diseases have mutated since then- rapidly. If even one person with a mutated strain of influenza came near you... You could die. Your immune system simply couldn't handle it. You're basically immunocompromised until we get you up-to-date. If I could I'd quarantine you to your cabin, but that's not fair to you at all."

"Will, when I ran away from camp, after only a year in this century, I lived on the streets. For six months, I lived in filth and grime. And I'm still here."

Will suppressed a shudder and walked over to hug Nico tightly to his chest. "That is terrifying." He said as he released the smaller boy. "You are so incredibly lucky you didn't get sick in the winter weather out there. Gods, Nico, you could've died."

"If you haven't noticed yet I'm pretty hard to kill." Nico shrugged. "Probably because, you know, Hades is my dad." 

"Still..." Will muttered. "...I'm not going to let you die from some stupid entirely preventable disease. Lord Hades will just have to wait."

"It's your funeral." Nico shrugged. 

Will collapsed onto the cot next to Nico. "I know."

\-----------

That was how Nico ended up praying fervently to his father to forgive his boyfriend for his impudence while Will was shouting into the black mirror in the Hades cabin about "child endangerment" and "immunodeficiency" and other terms Nico was only starting to understand. He stepped with a spray bottle outside and sprayed a mist of water to make a rainbow before tossing a coin into it. 

"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Hazel Levesque."

Hazel's golden hair shimmered into view before she noticed the IM. "Oh hi Nico! Goes of going! Is that Will screaming in the background? What's going on?" Her tone grew increasingly more worried.  
"It's nothing, I'm fine." Nico waved "But you're from around the same time period as me. Have you heard of vaccines?"

"I've heard of them, but I don't think I've had one..." Hazel mused, her finger tapping her chin.

"Well, go to New Rome's infirmary or whatever you have and get all of them. And soon- before Will remembers that you're from the forties and runs over there himself." Nico rolled his eyes. "Apparently they've cured polio and no one told me."

"They cured polio? Really!?" Hazel asked, astonished.

"Yeah. And rubella, and mumps, and measles, and they have a way to make it so you don't get influenza or the chicken pox either." Nico said. "And a bunch of other stuff I didn't recognize. But anyway, we're apparently in even more danger of getting sick since we're from another time. I don't know if that applies to you, since your body is reconstructed, but just to be safe, okay?" 

"I'll do that today." Hazel smiled. "Gotta go now, love you Nico!"

"Love you too, Hazel." Nico smiled as she waved her hand through the image. 

Nico walked back into his cabin tenuously, hoping that Hades had not struck his boyfriend down for his disrespect. But Will was fine, sitting at the desk writing something.

"Glad to see you're still breathing." Nico said sarcastically. 

"Same here." Will huffed. "But Lord Hades saw reason, I think. He really cares about you. Lord Hermes is delivering a full set of immunizations tomorrow morning, and one to New Rome."

"For Hazel..." Nico murmured.

"Yeah." Will chuckled. "For a god of death, Lord Hades really cares about you two living."

"In his own way." Nico shrugged, but Will caught the smirk that ghosted across his lips. 

"Do you have a drachma?" Will asked suddenly.

"Sure, why?"

"I have to call the Lotus Hotel and Casino and chew them out, too."

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know everything about vaccinations so if I've got something wrong please tell me :)


End file.
